Cafe Zinc — Restaurant in Midland

TLDR: Good food, but pricy. ($68 for one cocktail, a steak, and a tip) Allot a good two hours for a meal here or you’ll feel rushed. Manager has a bit of an attitude, hopefully just caught her on a bad day. Overall, I’ll likely give them another chance but I think we made a poor choice in restaurants for doing dinner and a show.

I went with my great aunt and my mom as my great aunt had been here before with a friend and really enjoyed it.

I didn’t care for the attitude of the manager, she needs some additional training on customer service. We showed up a little early for our reservation and they hadn’t cleared the table yet, which was totally fine. A couple walked in without a reservation and was immediately seated. My great aunt got a little anxious that we got forgotten about and inquired why they got seated first. The manager gave us a ton of attitude and told us that we needed to “wait 2 whole minutes” for them to finish up. As someone who has worked in customer service for 7 years, I know there were much more polite and less rude ways to handle the situation.

We did eventually get seated, even before our reservation time which we appreciated. I believe we were seated by 5:50 when our reservation was at 6. The waitress was excellent and attentive. We ordered our food and drinks at the same time (highly recommend!). Our drinks came out quickly and were very good. I got the Paloma and my mother got some white wine. We chatted and enjoyed ourselves and then noticed the time was now 6:30 and we still hadn’t gotten our food. Normally I wouldn’t care but we had a 7:30 show we had to catch and were planning on leaving at 7. We gently checked in with the waitress and the food was out within 10 minutes.

I ordered the Filet Mignon, my mom ordered the Salmon, and my great aunt ordered the broiled branzino. I ordered my steak medium and it came a little over medium well. Otherwise my dish was excellent. Asparagus was some of the best I’ve ever had. Potatoes were basically fancy scalloped potatoes, but still very tasty. Sauce on the steak was delicious, but surprisingly spicy. Not overwhelming but not what I anticipated. My mother said she enjoyed her salmon. She regularly cooks it at home and is hesitant to try it at restaurants as it’s difficult to get right. She said the salmon exceeded her expectations and was something above what she could cook at home. My great aunt enjoyed her boiled branzino (which was a white fish), but the menu stated it was supposed to come with lump crab and it was either so small it blended in with the quinoa or wasn’t included.

My biggest disappointment was that we ran out of time for dessert as the dessert case looked absolutely delicious from...

Ready for a fine dining experience in a laid back sort of way? Cafe Zinc hits the spot. Whether you are dressed to the nines or jeans and shirt (I'd keep it neat and clean of course) you'll be comfortable here.

The decor feels modern to me with a splash of retro. The furniture is white, hammered tin ceiling and very square chairs. These are comfortable enough but I'm a smaller person and they seemed a bit wide for my comfort level. We were seated at the corner table which was a little awkward for Melody to serve both of us closet to the entryway but she did a great job. This also helped us feel like our conversations were kept private and there was no issue with other tables conversations interrupting us.

We were seated quickly on a Saturday evening around 7 but it filled up rather fast. Melody was attentive throughout the meal but we didn't feel rushed or like she was always at the table. Maybe not so unfortunately our first wine choice was unavailable so we went with the Tuscany Little Blue 2008 Brancaia and it turned out to be an excellent blend.

I started with the escargot. These delicate morsels of deliciousness would have been just as delicious with them simply on the plate instead of sitting on a crustini. I left the bread and just ate the escargot and mushroom....yummy. It had just enough garlic and butter to enhance the flavor without overpowering the dish. Two others in our party ordered the French onion soup and both exclaimed it was the best they'd ever had. They said the Gruyère cheese is what made it different from other places.

For dinner I ordered the lamb prepared exactly as the chef prefers, medium rare. The plate was beautifully arranged with 5 plump, juicy sections and a side of fingerling potatoes mixed with broccoli and mushrooms. No need for additional seasoning as these were superbly seasoned. The lamb was prepared perfectly and this too was not overpowered with seasonings, mint, etc. but they only enhanced the flavor of the lamb.

Other orders at our table were the filet mignon which was also cooked perfectly. The special for the evening was bacon wrapped scallops atop a mixture of white beans and truffles. I was told the scallops were very good and I tasted the bean mixture...yum! And we also had the roasted chicken Ratatouille. The vegetables were again wonderfully seasoned and the chicken! No boring chicken here but a juicy, tender piece of meat to put this dish at the top of the list for future visits.

Unfortunately with such a delicious meal we couldn't partake in any dessert but I've been told the creme brulee is the go to.

So if your looking for a special night out or simply a relaxing, quiet dinner Cafe Zinc would be a...

I was looking for somewhere to take my mom for her 65th birthday this past Saturday. We had just enjoyed a wonderful day and I wanted to treat her to something nice. We chose cafe zinc over one eighteen because they had a vegan option on the menu. When we arrived we were greeted by the staff kindly and sat at our table. Our server was wonderful and attentive. However, let's go over the food. We ordered their pear salad and Cesar to start. The pear salad had little to no dressing or flavor. The Cesar was one of the worst I had ever had. The greens were browning, the dressing was dull. We politely told our server and she kindly took it off the bill for us.

We ordered apps (cranberry goat cheese, fries, and calamri) and all were wonderful.

Our entrees on the other hand, a different story. My mother ordered the trout, which came out cold on a hot plate (unsure how that happens) and with little to no flavor. We had to send back to be reheated.

My sister tried to order the vegan mushroom dish and we were told they were out without any alternative options. At 5 o'clock on a Saturday we were surprised they were out let alone without any other option (1 of the reasons we chose the restaurant).

My sister and I ended up splitting the salmon with maple mustard. Our salmon had a spoon full of spicy ground mustard with salmon on top that was so dry I could not cut through the skin.

I know it may seem as though we are nit picking or picky eaters (which it takes a lot for me to even speak up and send something back) however, when paying over $200 for a meal and close to $300 after a tip, the expectations were a little higher. Times are tough right now for a lot of people and spending that kind of money to do something special for my mother, it didn't feel worth it. Disappointed to...